AWU on TV's Meet the Press: Conditional support for guest worker program

The Australian Workers’ Union will back the pilot program for guest workers in the agricultural sector to be announced today by the Federal Government, if the program provides a regulated and transparent process in the hiring of seasonal workers from overseas.

" We've had illegal foreign labour in Australia's agricultural sector for decades. My members and officials deal with it on a daily basis. And there's some pretty grubby and horrible things that happen out there in remote workplaces where farmers have used foreign labour," Paul Howes, the AWU National Secretary, told Channel Ten's Meet the Press program today.

Pilot Pacific guest worker program

"A worker should not earn one dollar less than an Australian worker ... there should be appropriate levels of pastoral care (and) community involvement in deciding where these workers will be placed."

Mr Howes was interviewed on Meet the Press by Paul Bongiorno, Network Ten's Parliament House Bureau Chief in Canberra, Fran Kelly, from ABC Radio National Breakfast, and Glenn Milne from the Sunday Telegraph.

The AWU leader acknowledged that the Australian agricultural sector is suffering from a labour shortage. The union has pointed out before that much of the traditional agricultural workforce is currently opting to take good jobs in the booming regional resource industries.

" I'm worried about the (agricultural) industries collapsing under the pressure of that labour shortage. That's why I've taken this decision to try and proactively engage ... to try and work out a pragmatic solution to this problem."

The AWU policy for the pilot program is pragmatic - stating the guest worker program should be regularly reviewed to ensure it meets national priorities - including if the economy suddenly turns, resource jobs disappear, and Australian jobless figures rise rapidly.

Big business trying to force Govt to adopt WorkChoices Lite

Australian Workers' Union national secretary Paul Howes said many people falsely believed the former Howard government legislation no longer existed.

"Many people out there think it's gone - it's not," Paul Howes told Channel Ten's Meet the Press media panel.

"The campaign by the union movement continues to run to ensure that we remind the electorate that we are still a long way from restoring fairness and balance to Australia's workplaces."

" There's no doubt that big business is putting a hell of a lot of pressure on the Government to leave WorkChoices intact," Paul Howes told Channel Ten's Meet the Press.

"What we're reminding the Government is that they have a clear and undisputed mandate to change Australia's workplace laws to restore the balance, but also to bring fairness back to Australia's workplaces.

" We are still many weeks away to seeing substantial legislation. We don't know how the Greens, Independents or in fact the Coalition will vote in the Senate. The campaign by the union movement continues to run to ensure that we remind the electorate that we are still a long way from restoring fairness and balance to Australia's workplaces."

The AWU campaign to defend good regional jobs in the face of a global problem

" We need to remember that every ton of aluminium made in Australia has 50% less emissions than what's made in China.

" Too often in this debate, we lose perspective that this is a global problem," Paul Howes said.

" In Australia we can be part of the greenhouse gas solution by giving support and encouragement to our domestic industries to change their practises to continue to lead the way in leading low-carbon technologies into the future.

" That's why I support the allocation of free permits to these industries until we have a global level playing field so we don't create tariffs against ourselves and send jobs overseas."

The AWU leader is currently visiting AWU members in regional centres who work on the frontline of this climate change debate - in the resource and energy sector.